Fig. 1

Highly proliferative, GRO-α and OPG-producing hNTSCs are multipotent. (A) Images of human nasal inferior turbinate tissue obtained from turbinectomy. (B) Microscopic images of hNTSCs in culture. Scale bar: 200 μm. (C) Images of hNTSCs stained with alizarin red S on day 21 of incubation in osteogenic differentiation medium (left) and oil red O on day 14 of incubation in adipogenic differentiation medium (right). Scale bars: 50 μm. (D) Growth rate of cultured hNTSCs and hBMSCs for 4 days after plating. Each bar represents relative cell growth (mean ± SD). ***P < 0.001. (E) The cytokine expression of hNTSCs and hBMSCs in culture. Cytokine secretion profiles were obtained by incubating the array membrane with hNTSC and hBMSC culture medium. (F) Quantification of GRO-α, osteoprotegerin (OPG), and angiogenin optical-scale levels. Bars represent relative spot density. The intensity of each cytokine spot in the array membrane was measured based on gray-scale intensity (mean ± SD). *P < 0.05. (G) Flow cytometric analysis of cell surface markers using anti-CD34, anti-CD44, anti-CD73, anti-CD90, and anti-CD105 antibodies in hNTSCs and hBMSCs. (H) Confocal microscopy images of cultured hNTSCs and hBMSCs stained for CD44, CD73, CD90, and CD105. Nuclei were labeled with DAPI. Scale bar: 50 μm. (I) Western blots of SDS−PAGE gels of proteins extracted from hNTSCs and hBMSCs using primary anti-CD44 and anti-105 antibodies. β-actin was used as a loading control. All images and data are representative of two or three independent experiments.